Summary report on basic first aid skills popularization training

This four-session basic first aid skills science training was carried out for a total of 217 trainees from 12 community residents and employees of 6 companies in the jurisdiction. The final practical + theoretical comprehensive examination pass rate was 89.4%. Among them, the practical mastery rate of pressurization to stop bleeding and airway foreign body obstruction first aid (Heimlich maneuver) was over 95%, and the mastery rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) + automated external defibrillator (AED) combined operation was only 62.2%. The training data has verified the science popularization model of "scenario-based practical operations accounting for no less than 70%". The student skill retention rate is 3.2 times that of the purely theoretical teaching model. However, the acceptance of students of different ages and knowledge backgrounds varies significantly, and the hierarchical design of science popularization content still needs to be significantly adjusted.

To be honest, when we first prepared for this training, several of our lecturers had an argument.

Sister Li, who has 12 years of experience in first aid training at the Red Cross Society, insists on taking the route of "minimalist science popularization": ordinary people's brains are blank when encountering sudden cardiac arrest, and they can't grasp anything if they remember too much content. A two-hour training only requires three actions - call 120 to find an AED, apply chest compressions at a deep enough frequency, turn on the AED and follow the prompts, and don't add any other content. But Dr. Wang from the community hospital disagrees: Most of the things we encounter in daily life are small accidents such as children stuck in fish bones, burns and scalding during cooking, and old people twisting their feet. If you only teach CPR, and then someone gets burned and scalded, and you apply toothpaste and soy sauce to the wound, your training is in vain.

In the end, we compromised and left 40 minutes for the theoretical part, half of which talked about the key points of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the golden 4 minutes, half of which talked about the correct treatment of common minor injuries, and the remaining 80 minutes were all reserved for practical exercises. We also set up three simulated scenes of the subway, home, and office for everyone to take turns practicing.

Don't tell me, I was originally worried that everyone would be tired of the practical operation and would not want to get started, but as soon as the dummy and AED simulator were put out, several young men came up and asked if they could try it out first. There was a 58-year-old Aunt Zhang. When she first entered the venue, she said, "I'm too old to remember, so come here and make up the numbers." However, when we simulated the scene where an elderly family member had his throat stuck, she was the first to rush forward. Her movements were so standard that none of us lecturers could make any mistakes, and she got full marks in the final assessment.

However, the problem is quite obvious. The operation mastery rate of CPR+AED is only over 60%, which mainly affects two types of people: one is elderly students over 60 years old. Most of them have insufficient arm strength and it is difficult to achieve the required compression depth of 5-6 centimeters. Many people's arms shake after just ten seconds of pressing. ； The other type is young students who have little exposure to medical knowledge. They are always afraid that the AED will shock them. They hold the electrode pads for a long time and dare not stick them on the dummy. Some of them press with varying degrees of pressure, and the frequency does not meet the requirement of 100-120 times/min.

By the way, an interesting phenomenon was discovered this time: the more students who watch first aid short videos, the more misunderstandings they bring when they come. A girl born in 1995 started doing compressions on the dummy with her arms bent like springs. She said that the short video she saw said, "You don't need to straighten your arms to save energy." Another young man said that he saw some bloggers saying that the Heimlich maneuver only requires a back beat. It took us almost half an hour to correct these biased movements.

We received good news on the third day after the training: There was a trainee who worked at an Internet company. His 3-year-old child had jelly stuck in his throat. He held the baby and used the Heimlich maneuver he had practiced three times in class. He spit out the jelly after five pats. His voice shook when he sent us a WeChat message. He said, "I must have been so panicked before that I couldn't even dial 120 correctly. This time in class, I touched the simulation doll, and I know where to hold it and how hard to hold it."

Looking back now, the two previous training ideas actually make sense. In the post-course questionnaire, 82% of the students said that "the content on minor injury treatment is very practical and can be used every day", but 17% of the students reported that "the content is too much and can be confusing, and they may not be able to remember it when something happens". We plan to split the training into two versions in the future: a class for people aged 18-50, focusing on practicing CPR and AED operation, and adding some common trauma treatment as appropriate. ； The classes for the elderly and expectant mothers focus on the treatment of high-frequency minor accidents such as the Heimlich maneuver, burns, and nosebleeds. There is no need to force everyone to master the CPR compression movements. As long as the elderly students can learn to call for help quickly, accurately tell the location, and help deliver the AED, there is no need to apply a one-size-fits-all approach.

Oh, yes, there is another small detail to mention: for this training, we gave all trainees free portable first aid kits, which included styptic powder, band-aids and AED location maps. Many people said that they did not know that there were AEDs in the pharmacy at the door of their community. Next time we hold training, we plan to clearly mark the AED locations in the jurisdiction and print them on the leaflets. We will first solve the problem of "finding the equipment" and then talk about "being able to use the equipment."

Generally speaking, this training is not perfect, and there are still many areas that need to be adjusted, but it can really help a few people, and I feel that the late nights and moving props for more than half a month have been in vain.